Technical Advice and Reviews involving the computer and technology industries. You will find Computer tips and reviews, Operating System Tips and Reviews, and any other subject you can think of in the information technology field.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Part 3 of Why Is My Computer Running So Slow

My apologies this post is severely late, for reasons I could not control. In Part 1 we discussed why your computer might be running slow. In Part 2 we discussed some alternatives to bulky programs that may be taxing your computer.

In this the last and possibly most important installment of the Why Is My Computer Running So Slow; we will be discussing how to disable start up programs, how to uninstall unused programs, and finally how you can disable certain services that you may not be using.

Do not take any of the three of these lightly, you have to be careful because you can cause many problems with your computer if you do not proceed with caution.

Ok lets get started. All of you should be familiar with what the start menu is. When you click on the start button, on the right hand side of that menu is an option called run. Please click that and in the box type "msconfig". After you have typed this you can press the enter key. The last or second to last tab will be labeled"startup". Click on this tab and you will see a scrolling box that is listing all of your startup programs. Chances are, most of the programs that are starting here are unneeded.

With some time and care you can track what most of these programs are. To disable them, you will make sure there is no check mark in the box next to them. You can do this by highlighting and clicking with the mouse in the box. After you have enabled or disabled the services you wish to, you will press ok.

Occasionally your computer may be running so slow it makes the usual troubleshooting impossible. A remedy for this is called Sade Mode. It is basically a built in troubleshooting platform for the windows operating system. At the post or boot up of your computer wait about 3 seconds and then press F8. In most systems you will wait until you have heard the beep, on the screen it will ask you if you would like to enter the bios, right after this screen press F8. You will press it several seconds before it begins to boot Windows XP.

Once you have pressed F8, a menu will pop up asking several options. For inexperienced users you can choose the top option for regular safe mode. What safe mode does is load windows with many of your startup programs disabled, and just a the few drivers it needs to get by. From there you can run "msconfig" and begin to troubleshoot your computer.

Another option can be that you may want to uninstall unused programs, this can be done in safe mode or regular mode. You will choose Start-Control Panel, and then Add and Remove Programs. You will see a scroll through list of programs you may not even be using. You can uninstall most any of these programs by choosing the uninstall option. You may only uninstall one program at a time.

A common program that can cause huge slow down problems if left on your computer is the AOL dialup platform. I have seen systems that have 3 or 4 versions of AOL left on there system, and now they are a broadband customer. These versions can be uninstalled and you will see a performance enhancement.

The last item we will cover in this article are services. If you go to Start-Run-type services.msc- press enter, you will see a list of your computer services. I will not tell you in this article every needed service and every service you can disable safely, however with a little research you can find out programs you disable. For example one that comes to mind is desktops that are wired with wireless internet management service on.

Once you have researched what services are safe to disable you can disable it permanently or stop it just during one computer session. You do this by highlighting the service right clicking and choosing properties. In the middle you will see a drop down box that says startup type. You can choose Automatic-Manual-or Disabled. Underneath there you can choose Start or Stop.

This is the last installment of this three part article. I hope you have enjoyed it and feel free to ask any questions.